Chee Hian Kwah
Chee Hian advises financial institutions and fintech clients on legal, regulatory and compliance matters.
Chee Hian advises banks, securities brokers, asset managers, payment services providers, insurers and fintech companies on a broad range of regulatory matters, including licensing advice and applications, structuring of regulated and non-regulated businesses, drafting of T&Cs, business conduct rules, product marketing and offering rules, outsourcing and risk management controls, sanctions and anti-money laundering compliance. He has extensive experience in helping clients with various Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) licence applications, such as capital markets services licence, financial adviser licence, and payment institution licence (including digital payment token service).
On the contentious front, Chee Hian also advises financial institutions on internal investigations, regulatory enquiries, and enforcement actions relating to breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
Chee Hian works closely with industry bodies such as Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) and Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) on financial services reform and developments. He has also spent some time on secondment with an international bank in Singapore, and assisted the bank with its regulatory requirement to locally incorporate its Singapore retail operations.
Background
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Chee Hian graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from the National University of Singapore, where he was awarded the Lo Hwei Yen Memorial Scholarship and a variety of book prizes. He is admitted to practice law in Singapore.
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- acted for an international securities brokerage firm in obtaining a capital markets services licence for dealing in capital markets products
- acted for an international investment bank in obtaining a capital markets services licence for fund management
- acted for a regional payments services provider in obtaining a major payment institution licence
- advised an international Big Tech company on the launch of its payments business in Singapore, and the application of new payments regulations to its business
- assisted and advised an international bank on a MAS investigation of potential AML breaches
